Unlocking Healthy Conversations: Strategies for Talking with Teens About Mental Health
In Part Two of our series on effective communication, Rebekah Gibbons, LICSW, will take participants through four common scenarios. In each scenario, she will teach parents and caring adults how to use communication strategies that work. You will learn how to validate your teen’s feelings and discuss sensitive topics.
A place to learn
At Families for Depression Awareness (FFDA), we focus on the families of people living with depression or bipolar disorder ("mood disorders"), equipping family caregivers with education and training so they can provide effective, constructive support to their loved ones.
Mood disorders affect everyone in a family, not only those with the diagnosis. Each family member should be able to have their needs identified and addressed.
In addition to passing along a higher likelihood of having a mood disorder, parents living with a mood disorder can find it hard to engage with their children, take care of household chores, do their work, and sometimes even to get out of bed.
Family caregivers risk wearing themselves out as they help their loved one seek treatment, manage the household and the family, and try to keep a roof over their heads.
Since our beginning, we have shared family stories to help caregivers feel like they are not alone, show that families can address mood disorders together, inspire hope, and dispel stigma. Each year, we add to our library of honest and inspiring accounts of families facing the challenges of mood disorders and suicide.
What if I Say the Wrong Thing? Tips for Communicating When Your Loved One Is Depressed
For Caregivers, Family Members, Friends, and Caring Adults Interested in Adult Depression
Caregiver Conversations: Managing Crisis and Preventing Suicides
What can you do if a member of your family is having a mental health crisis or feeling suicidal? As a caregiver, with the right education and resources, you can help your family get through distressing situations and prevent suicide.
Adult Depression: Getting on the Path to Wellness as a Family
For Caregivers, Family Members, Friends, and Caring Adults Interested in Adult Depression
Pandemic Parenting: Supporting Teen Mental Health
Parenting teens through the years 2020 and 2021 has brought challenges we couldn’t have imagined in 2019. Families have experienced the contradiction of isolation and excessive time together; loss of income and higher levels of food- and housing-insecurity; drastically reduced access to school resources; increased rates of mental health distress and crisis; and ongoing fear for what the future holds. For most of us, the stressors have been layering on top of one another without relief.